The locale of Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town" is hardly an exotic one for theatergoers. But Grover’s Corners, where the simple pleasures of gazing at the moon or watching the sun come over the mountain are the only entertainment needed, has long maintained its hold on audiences, and understandably so.

This year, the play celebrates its 75th birthday, and it is on more than one list of the most regularly staged high school productions. Premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, it also holds a special place in New Jersey’s dramatic history.

At the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, it gets a polished, traditional staging courtesy of director Joseph Discher as well as a well-chosen cast and a skilled creative team. Particularly engaging are the wholesome, heartfelt portrayals of Emily Webb by Nisi Sturgis and George Gibbs by Jordan Coughtry. (The actors are a real-life couple and appeared in last season’s "Trelawny of the Wells.")

In recent years, a modern-dress production and a rendition incorporating puppets have crossed local stages. Discher presents the play with the fidelity of a well-preserved time capsule. Every accent and dress ruffle is just so, and Wilder’s words to the people of the future — that this is how Grover’s Corners was — ring true.

In the role of the narrating Stage Manager, Philip Goodwin carries us through the New Hampshire town’s life-cycle events — growing up, marriage, death — with grandfatherly affection as well as palpable pride in an ordinary neighborhood whose history he is determined to honor. The pace is leisurely, sometimes to the point of tedium, as Goodwin walks us through the mostly mundane activities of the first two acts before the third settles unabashedly, and effectively, into tearjerker territory.

But even before it reaches its emotional peak, Discher’s staging is thoughtful and portraits of the townspeople are rewardingly specific. Myrtle Webb (a lively Alison Daughtry) and Mrs. Gibbs (a firm but compassionate Marion Adler) running through their morning chores with dance-like synchronized motions make for a particularly memorable image.

Coughtry supplies ample charm and, when appropriate, a touch of comic lightness to George Gibbs — as well as believable and touching distress to his final scenes.

Malachy Cleary’s Doc Gibbs vacillates endearingly between his "old grouch" façade and his sweeter side, and James Michael Reilly is endearingly uncomfortable in scenes with George as Charles Webb. Mark H. Dold gives a compelling performance as the melancholy alcoholic Simon Stimson.

A simple but substantial brick backdrop anchors the set design by Charlie Calvert and appropriate, well made costumes by Candida Nichols contribute to the town’s atmosphere. Even though, as the Stage Manager points out, there’s not much by way of scenery, and characters mime opening doors and other actions, their experiences feel authentic.

Grovers’ Corners residents are plainspoken and their ideas hardly revelatory, but aspects of their lifestyle and values resonate. There is comfort in recognition of the fear that a young couple feels on their wedding day, humor in the awkwardness between a groom and his future father-in-law and, most important, pathos in Emily’s realization that we don’t often realize what we have — at least not, as we should, at every moment.

Sturgis manages to seem absolutely genuine in conveying Emily’s wide-eyed innocence and generous affection for her hometown, and deftly offsets the girl’s emotional, "nervous" temperament with her strong convictions. Her role is crucial to holding up Wilder’s portrait, and she more than lives up to expectations.